Shanghai apartment block falls down

[Mulboyne]

Some good pictures here.

[Tsuru]

Did it get blown over or something?

[BO-SENSEI]

I am no building expert but from the looks of it the building had almost no foundation and the soil looked very unstable. Good thing it was unoccupied, could you imagine being in that building when it was going over?

[Mulboyne]

I think someone also needs to take a closer look at how those other blocks have been built.

[Doctor Stop]

Made in China.

[sublight]

Don't worry, just a few scratches. Prop it back up and give it some fresh paint and it'll be good as new.

[2triky]

Made in China.

Nuff said.

[IkemenTommy]

I am no building expert but from the looks of it the building had almost no foundation and the soil looked very unstable. Good thing it was unoccupied, could you imagine being in that building when it was going over?

One worker apparently got caught in the falling Jenga and died.

What a shitty way to die.

[Takechanpoo]

I am wholeheartedly disappointed that this collapse didn't happen after C-residents moved into.

[dimwit]

They should have painted some dots on the side of it and it would have made a perfect domino.

[Catoneinutica]

Made in Japan

[Mike Oxlong]

I guess the Chinese were using the pre-'95 Kobe-designed apartment complexes.

[GuyJean]

I am wholeheartedly disappointed that this collapse didn't happen after C-residents moved into.

That complex was built for Japanese expats; it collapsed too early.

GJ

[Samurai_Jerk]

I am no building expert but from the looks of it the building had almost no foundation and the soil looked very unstable. Good thing it was unoccupied, could you imagine being in that building when it was going over?

You're right. It does just look like they stuck some poles in the ground to anchor an otherwise foundationless building. Any experts on here that can tell us if that's what actually happened?

[Tsuru]

I'm no construction engineer, but I always thought the point of having piles is to provide load carriage all the way down to the bedrock if the soil is too unstable to support the structure (it usually is for tower blocks). Either they were far too short in this case or all failed at around the same depth because of improper casting or cheap concrete. These piles also look like the type which is cast on-site in the ground rather than the (stronger) prefab type. And only a few show exposed rebar...

[nottu]

[IkemenTommy]

I am presuming that the other buildings nearby were all built in the same way and most likely will tip over in a similar manner. I wonder how many people were planning to move in there but now are regretting it. This kind of reminds me of the dodgy Aneha Construction they had a few years ago in Japan where they fudged a few earthquake mandates to cut costs.

Even though the China media is reporting only 1 casualty, I bet there were tons more that they will never admit.

[james]

I am presuming that the other buildings nearby were all built in the same way and most likely will tip over in a similar manner.

they definitely appear to have been cut from the same cookie-cutter. my guess is we won't have to wait too long to find out!

dominoes indeed.. if only they'd gotten the spacing right..

[Typhoon]

they definitely appear to have been cut from the same cookie-cutter. my guess is we won't have to wait too long to find out!

dominoes indeed.. if only they'd gotten the spacing right..

The only thing that fell faster than that building was the price of the units in the identical adjacent buildings.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I feel bad for the people that probably already bought those condos. Of course I feel even worse for the guy that got killed. Unless he was a foreman or something.

[Ketou]

I feel bad for the people that probably already bought those condos. Of course I feel even worse for the guy that got killed. Unless he was a foreman or something.

Why a foreman? They are just workers with enough experience to manage a crew. I think you mean a developer or the moron architects/engineers who decided they could build like that....

[dimwit]

Made in Japan

That is a bit disingenous. That is 1960's construction if I have ever seen it, built when there were primative earthquake standards. I would guess that cities the world over from Sydney to Toronto have thousands of buildings that would fare much worse than most Japanese construction.

Comparing buildings that are damaged during earthquakes to buildings that can't even support their deadweight is to compare poisoned dog food with a nice prime rib. To achieve what those Chinese builders have done requires not only Aneha-like designing but serious errors throughout the entire building process. Quite an accomplishment in a really fucked up way.

[Kuang_Grade]

Yeah, that Japanese photo looks to be liquefaction issues, where the soil underneath the building loses strength during an earthquake vs the building failing itself. It is possible the Shanghai building had a similar issue (since they mention a nearby flood wall problem), but it looks pretty clear that the base wasn't strong enough to handle the load on top of it.